Chapter LI
Conclusion
One cannot have made the foregoing argument in ignorance that to most minds it must seem a mere churning of words. It affects even rather mature students of social science, and almost invariably specialists in other departments, as a species of speculation for which one can have no serious respect without incurring suspicion of mental unbalance. Men attached to the traditions of the older social sciences, and still more men who have no use for any social doctrine except schemes of immediate reform, honestly believe that sociology is profitless refinement of academic trifles. To this state of mind we must cheerfully respond: If sociology is profitless, by all means let it alone. Wisdom is justified of her children, but she is always compromised when the unwise claim her naternity. It would be a delightful clearing of the atmosphere if fewer people would call themselves sociologists, and more would absorb a very little of the sociological spirit. Each. man who has intelligence enough to deal with any portion of social science rationally, or with any part of social amelioration sanely, would be more rational, and more sane, and more effective, if he would learn to place what he does within the larger perspective that sociology affords. There is always danger, to be sure, that reflection will. turn Hotspurs into Hamlets. The philosopher may find so many things to think of that he can choose nothing to do. To that extent and in that sense, sociology, like all science and all philosophy, is a possible hindrance to action. On the other hand, action not sanctioned by science and philosophy is blind, and thought that stops short of the utmost comprehension of its object is impotent. The people who are content with such thought and action invite the penalties of both weakness and vice. The profoundest and most comprehensive thought is not for everybody at first hand. But, while the world does not need many professional sociologists, it does need sociology. For weal or for woe, we have arrived at a stage of life in which social gravitation is more and more arrested and deflected, and perhaps reversed by social theory. Men think today about social relations, and in the spirit of their thought they act. To do the right thing, except by accident, in any social situation, we must rightly think the situation. We must think it not merely in itself, but in all its connections. Sociology aims to become the lens through which such insight maybe possible. There must be credible sociologists in order that there may be farseeing economists and statesmen and moralists, and that each of. us may be an intelligent specialist at his particular post.